MARTIN O’Neill rejected claims that Harry Redknapp tactically outwitted him by making an early substitution to nullify Ashley Young’s threat.

Young terrorised Tottenham early on, so much so that right-back Didier Zokora, already booked for fouling the winger, was taken off on 32 minutes.

But O’Neill felt Young’s quiet second-half was down to Villa’s failure to give him the ball rather than Vedran Corluka marking him out of the game.

“I think the reason Ashley wasn’t so good in the second-half was because we couldn’t get it to him,” said O’Neill.

“Ashley Young in recent times against a lot of teams but particularly against Tottenham Hotspur, has had great joy against any of the two he’s played against.

“He’s faced Corluka before against Manchester City and Tottenham,” he added.

“I thought it was a great compliment to Ashley that after 32 minutes they replaced Zokora but, personally speaking, it was our inability to get him the ball in the second-half more than anything else.”

O’Neill felt Villa could bounce back from Jermaine Jenas’ early strike, but he admitted Darren Bent’s goal at the start of the second-half was a major blow.

“At half time I felt very confident, so did the team,” he added.

“Second-half, just after half-time, it was a desperately poor goal to concede and it certainly knocked us back.

“It was a major setback. We lost rhythm and we couldn’t really regain it for any proper period of time.

“It was disappointing because it was a game we felt we could win,” he said.